The action launched by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) against Rathnakishore Giri and SR Private Equity, LLC and NBD Eidetic Capital, LLC faces a stay, as indicated by documents recently filed with the Ohio Southern District Court.

The documents, seen by FX News Group, show that the CFTC has consented to the U.S. government’s requests to intervene and stay the proceedings.

The US Government seeks leave to intervene in the CFTC action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24; and moves to stay this case through the conclusion of the parallel criminal prosecution, which is currently scheduled for trial on April 15, 2024.

The CFTC filed its action against the fraudulent scheme in August 2022. The complaint alleges that, from at least March 2019 through the present, Giri, individually, and while acting as an agent and controlling person of SR Private Equity and NBD Eidetic, engaged in a fraudulent scheme in which the defendants solicited and accepted over $12,000,000 and at least 10 bitcoin from more than 150 individuals or entities, to trade digital assets, mainly bitcoin, on behalf of the customers.

Beginning in or around March 2019, Defendant Giri solicited customers to invest with him personally by offering to trade digital assets on their behalf. On or about October 2020, Defendant Giri established NBD Eidetic and began to solicit customers to invest in various digital asset investment funds purportedly operated by NBD Eidetic. On or about April 2021, Defendant Giri established SR Private Equity and began to solicit customers to invest in various digital asset investment funds purportedly operated by SR Private Equity.

During the Relevant Period, Defendants made numerous false and misleading statements to current and prospective customers, including that Giri was an experienced and successful digital asset trader who obtained profitable returns averaging up to 5% to 10% per month.

During the Relevant Period, the defendants also omitted material facts in order to solicit prospective customers, such as that defendants misappropriated and commingled customer funds with Defendant Giri’s personal bank and digital asset trading accounts as well as the personal bank and digital asset trading accounts of Giri Subramani and Loka Pavani Giri. The defendants misappropriated customer funds to pay for Defendant Giri’s lavish lifestyle, which included yacht rentals, luxury vacations and luxury shopping trips.

Through this conduct and the conduct further described herein, the Defendants have engaged, are engaging, or are about to engage in fraudulent acts and practices in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act (“Act” or “CEA”), 7 U.S.C. §§ 1-26, and Commission Regulations (“Regulations”), 17 C.F.R. parts 1-190 (2021), specifically Section 6(c)(1) of the Act, 7 U.S.C. § 9(1), and Regulation 180.1(a), 17 C.F.R. § 180.1(a) (2021).

The complaint also alleges that Giri is liable for NBD Eidetic and SR Private Equity’s violations of the Act and Regulations, pursuant to Section 13(b) of the Act, 7 U.S.C. § 13c(b).